get in touch with him so quickly.
“Why’s he answering your text and not mine? Or did you call him?”
I dive into my bowl of cereal, talking around the limp flakes. “I texted him. But he’s not going to text me back anymore. Just leave him be.” I stare into my bowl.
Thibault walks over and sets a hot mug of coffee down in front of me. Taking the chair across from mine, he digs into his cereal as well. I think we’re going to eat in companionable silence, but he destroys that idea with one question.
“Something happen between you guys last night?”
I drop my spoon with a clang into the dish and glare at him. “Could you mind your own fucking business, please?”
Thibault smiles at me, sly fox that he is. “Something happened. Don’t try to deny it.” He narrows his eyes. “But what could it be to get you so riled up? Hmmm . . .” He pokes at his flakes with his spoon, never taking his eyes off me. He takes a bite and chews real slowly.
I get up from the table, swiping my bowl and spoon off it and walking over quickly to dump them in the sink. “I’m done here. See yourself out.”
“You think that’s a good idea?” Thibault’s words follow me down the hallway.
“Not talking about this with you!”
“I just don’t want to see you get hurt!”
Too late. I run up the stairs, determined to put this behind me, my heart aching in my chest. God, please take care of Lucky. I’m not there to watch his back, and I don’t want him to get hurt.
CHAPTER SIX
The weekend goes by way too slowly. When Monday finally arrives, I end up at work an hour early. It’s 8:00, but I’m not alone. Dev and Jenny are in the workout area getting an early start on the day too. She’s several months into her fitness program with Dev, the man in charge of our training, and it’s really paying off.
When she first arrived she looked like a typical computer geek—someone who sits at a desk all day munching on chips. But now she’s a lean, mean, case-cracking machine. Mostly. Dev has been trying to teach her how to use a singlestick, but she’s resisting. Unlike her sister May, Jenny is a pure pacifist. I can hear her whining from across the warehouse.
“But I work at the computer. I’m never going to need to hit anybody with a stick.”
“Probably not,” Dev says, “but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be prepared. Just because you’re cute doesn’t mean you get to be an exception to the rule.”
She giggles and I roll my eyes. The two of them are so ga-ga over each other it’s stupid. I’m not jealous, though. Their love works, even though the deck is stacked against them. Between them they have four kids and two disabilities, a mother who took off after one of the kids was born, and an ex-husband who isn’t a shining example of fatherhood to the other three. They’d never admit it, but I think they like coming to the warehouse; it’s less work than being at home with that loud, crazy crew.
“Hey, Toni,” Dev says, emerging from the shadows. “How was your weekend?”
“Fine,” I lie. No way would I ever tell him how long and empty it seemed and how I second-guessed myself every five minutes. Regret is already eating away at my soul.
Dev and I are friends, and I consider him practically an adopted brother, but he’s never been somebody I’ve shared my feelings with. Nobody is, really, except maybe Ozzie. He pretty much sponsored me when I got out of prison, and he managed my life for me when I couldn’t. He’s the only one in the world who knows how I feel about anything, and we haven’t talked much since May entered the picture. Even my brother is kept an arm’s length away. Thankfully, Thibault didn’t say another word to me about Lucky over the weekend, or I don’t know what I would have done to him. It might have helped that I avoided him like the plague.
I don’t like anyone in my business. Charlie—my ex-boyfriend—once told me it was because I fear that once people get a really good look at what I have inside, they’ll run for the hills. Whatever. I’m okay with being only half there, so long as I can be there at all.
“I hear you and Lucky disappeared Friday night,” Dev says.
Jenny comes out of